Konvent’s Heidi Brink and Sara Nørregaard dare you to diss their beloved Squiers.

Stevie Nicks has compared Russian president Vladimir Putin to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Earlier today, the FLEETWOOD MAC singer took to her social media to share a photo of a stunning hand-painted box she had apparently received from an artist in Ukraine, and she included the following message: “At 4am this morning me and a friend sent a message to a lady in Ukraine who sent us a beautiful hand painted box~ to thank her again and check up on her after watching the news all night ~ she immediately wrote back that she was home and still fine… At 4:45am she wrote us back that she was now~ ‘just trying to escape’; that changed everything. Now I know someone, an innocent person, who is having her freedom taken from her. I have been crying ever since.

“My mom said to me after 9-11 ~ don’t forget what your father and I were fighting for; don’t forget it… (I am glad she isn’t here to see this.)

“This is Hitler coming back to haunt us. In one evening ~ until now, an entire sovereign country has been full-on ~ invaded.. How dare he.

“My heart is broken for our new friend~ and for the people of Ukraine~ I am so, so sorry~

“Love and prayers for them

“Stevie Nicks”.

Stevie isn’t the first person to point out similarities between Putin and Hitler.

In Russia, people scrawled “Adolf Putin” on a wall in the Russian president’s hometown of St. Petersburg.

A Twitter account with the handle @Ukraine — reportedly created in 2016 by Yamera Dukh, who worked in the press bureau for the Ukraine’s presidential office — posted a political cartoon of an oversized Hitler staring deeply into Putin’s eyes, his hand touching the Russian president’s face, like a father admiring his son.

On Thursday (February 24), Putin announced a “special military operation” in the east of the country. A short time later, explosions were reported in the outskirts of Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and Mariupol, as well as the capital Kyiv.

Putin made the announcement during a televised early morning speech, saying the action comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine, yet insisted Russia doesn’t have a goal to occupy the country.

Putin had reportedly given approval to the operation in the Donbas region of Ukraine, where Moscow earlier recognized rebel-held territories in Luhansk and Donetsk and said they had asked for its “help.”

The Russian leader called for Ukraine’s “demilitarization” and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.”

pic.twitter.com/g5xjQruLTY
— Stevie Nicks (@StevieNicks) February 25, 2022

This week’s batch of new releases includes the latest from Blood Incantation, Brood of Hatred, Foreign Hands and more!
The post Five For Friday: February 25, 2022 appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

In a new interview with the Phoenix, Arizona radio station KSLX-FM 100.7, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford discussed his autobiography, “Confess”, which arrived in September 2020 via Hachette Books. Co-written with Ian Gittins, the book offered readers a compelling, heartfelt and honest look at the struggles Rob has faced with addiction and his sexuality as well as exploring his music and his many brushes with controversy.

Rob said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I was approached in my 30s. ‘Rob, do you want to do a book?’ I’m, like, ‘No, dude. I’ve got more of a life to live.’ And then there’s a little bell [that] goes, ‘Ping! It’s time to do it.’ So we put that together while the pandemic was going on.

“Thank you to everybody that took time to get into the book,” he continued. “It was a real journey of self-discovery. ‘Cause Ian Gittins, who is my guy — Ian did the Nikki Sixx ‘Heroin Diaries’ and a multitude of other great books. He was the master of taking it through the various parts of my life. And we got it done at long last.”

Halford went on to praise Gittins further, saying: “He’s great. He’s a researcher. He pulls his stuff from all these different resources. Once you put a light on in my head, the lips start flapping… So, I’m relieved that, through my sobriety, I thought I had lost so much of this stuff in those murky years, but he was able to get me through that time, which we included in the book. So, yeah, we didn’t miss anything; we didn’t cut any corners. The difficulty came when we sent all these hundreds of thousands of words to the publisher, and then the editing team goes in. I’m, like, ‘You cannot take that out. It’s gotta stay in.’ We had quite a bit of material left over — for the right reasons. That’s why editors edit. So we’re utilizing that in another project that we’ll be talking about later on this year.”

In “Confess”, Halford discusses in detail what it was like becoming the first metal icon to announce he is gay in 1998 during an MTV interview, despite knowing about his sexuality since he was 10. Although his bandmates and their management knew he was gay and were accepting, he was advised to be discreet given the macho hetero nature of the metal world. He also opens up about surviving sexual abuse, as well as his struggles with depression, substance abuse, sobriety, and the suicide of one of his former partners. He also talks about how his own suicide attempt in 1986 led him to the rehab program that saved his life.

A year and a half ago, Halford told Sonic Perspectives about the book’s title: “I would like to feel there are parts of this book which are relatable to others. Everybody is the same, as we all share similar life experiences. There are so many things that happen to us; we are almost identical no matter where we are from. I’ve traveled the world and seen how our music can touch people from all walks of life and professions. Confessing these stories or episodes is important, and it gives the reader a look-see into this guy that you only see from one point of view.”

Halford is not the first member of PRIEST’s classic lineup to release a book. Former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing released his autobiography, “Heavy Duty: Days And Nights In Judas Priest”, in September 2018 via Da Capo Press.

In 2009, original JUDAS PRIEST singer Al Atkins released his autobiography, titled “Dawn Of The Metal Gods: My Life In Judas Priest And Heavy Metal”. JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill penned the foreword to the book, which was written with Neil Daniels — a freelance rock writer and heavy metal fan who befriended Atkins during the writing of Neil’s book “The Story Of Judas Priest: Defenders Of The Faith” (Omnibus Press).

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British heavy metal legends SAXON have released a 14-minute documentary about the making of the band’s latest album, “Carpe Diem”, and “the struggle and the strife that went into it.” Check it out below.

Produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) at Backstage Recording Studios in Derbyshire with singer Biff Byford and Sneap mixing and mastering, “Carpe Diem” strikes the ear as one of the most essential British metal statements of the last few years and not lacking in pace or bite, an album which will ignite the joy in stalwart supporters and attract a whole new legion to the SAXON fold.

Sneap, himself a guitarist and producer of some metal repute, ensures that “Carpe Diem” does not lack one ounce of grit or sharpness. “Andy’s obviously a very good guitarist,” says Biff, “but he’s not a blues-based guitarist like our guys are; he’s more of a modern-style player. And that means the boys (Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt) love working with him because, again, it’s all about the intensity. Andy’s always pushing the envelope; he doesn’t let them get away with anything. They have to play it for real, full speed. He gets great sound, and we want that Gibson/Marshall ’80s sound even if they’re not Gibsons and Marshalls. We try and retain that British metal guitar sound that we created for SAXON, and he’s definitely an ’80s child.”

Despite a career which has spanned 44 years with over 15 million albums sold, including four top 10 U.K. albums, and having played to hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide, SAXON are revving up for one of their busiest eras yet.

“We’re gonna be quite busy this year,” says Biff. “There are festivals which have been rescheduled from two years ago, we’re looking to go to America, we’re also going to tour U.K. and Europe later in the year and like everyone really, we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out and we can do it all. We’re also recording the second ‘Inspirations’ album, and as we do that, you never know, we might write a few songs for the next SAXON album…”

The genesis of “Carpe Diem”‘s fierce intensity lies in two extremely significant life events.

“It’s been a difficult two years,” offers Biff with considerable understatement, “because I had the heart attack back in September 2019, so things went a bit pear-shaped for the band. And then COVID hit two or three months later, but luckily, we started writing and recording this album before COVID. We did the drums in Germany and we did the guitars in various places. I was doing a lot of writing while I was in the hospital bed, and we spent quite a long time writing and arranging the ideas that we all had. I do think it’s a very intense album, and maybe some of that intensity comes from the frustration of not being able to do anything in the COVID period.”

“Carpe Diem” track listing:

01. Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)
02. Age Of Steam
03. The Pilgrimage
04. Dambusters
05. Remember The Fallen
06. Super Nova
07. Lady In Gray
08. All For One
09. Black Is The Night
10. Living On The Limit

“We want every album we make to go platinum,” says Biff defiantly. “We never make an album that we don’t expect to be fantastic because there are no laurels around here, and as a band, we’re always trying to do something a little bit new, a little bit daring. I love fast metal like ‘Princess Of The Night’ and ‘20,000 Feet’, and I try and bring that style of SAXON into the music now, but in a more modern style. We don’t sound like an old band on records because we’re not sitting back on our past success, we’re always trying to make a great album.”

Produced by Andy Sneap and Biff Byford
Album mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap

Guitars recorded by Andy Sneap at Backstage Recording Studios, Derbyshire (U.K.); vocals recorded by Seb Byford at Big Silver Barn, York (U.K.); drums recorded by Jacky Lehmann (Audiosound) at Velbyproductions, Grünenplan (Germany).

All lyrics by Biff Byford. Backing vocals by Seb Byford